Carte Blanche: A New James Bond Novel Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Britton of Bookpleasures.com

Dr. Wesley Britton

Reviewer Dr. Wesley
Britton: Dr. Britton is the author of four non-fiction books on
espionage in literature and the media. Starting in fall 2015, his new
six-book science fiction series, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, debuted
via BearManor Media. For seven years, he was co-host of online
radio’s Dave White Presents where he contributed interviews with a
host of entertainment insiders. Before his retirement in 2016, Dr.
Britton taught English at Harrisburg Area Community College. Learn
more about Dr. Britton at hisWEBSITE

In
several ways, the cinematic and literary run of the James Bond most
of us grew up with ended in 2002. Partly due to audience responses to
the excesses of the film version of Die Another Day and the success
of the Jason Bourne films, both EON Productions and Ian Fleming
Publications realized the contrivance that 007 was frozen in time and
ageless no longer held up. For nearly half a century, the World War
II vet and Cold Warrior had remained a two-dimensional character with
new actors on the screen and new writers for the continuation novels.
But, after 2002, clearly new directions for both the films and books
were needed.

In 2008, designed to coordinate with the
Ian Fleming Centenary, the new James Bond novel was Sebastian Faults’
Devil May care, a flawed attempt to return Bond to the decade that
made him an icon, an adventure set just after Fleming’s own final
novel, Man With The Golden Gun. For its part, the film
franchise had already launched its reboot of the saga with Daniel
Craig in Casino Royale, a new incarnation of Bond having to earn his
double O. On the large screen, at least, the frozen in time ice had
finally been broken.

Now, the novels have followed suit
with Jeffrey Deaver’s highly-praised Carte Blanche: A New James
Bond Novel, and the title is a good summation of what readers will
find. Not only is Carte Blanche a new 007 book, but this is a new
James Bond, a young agent in his 30s in a very new milieu in which to
operate. Yes, many of the old names populate the supporting cast—M,
Bill Tanner, Miss Moneypenny, Felix Leiter, Rene Mathis—but these
characters mostly have cameo appearances to remind us of the James
Bond legacy. (By the way, this M is the Admiral Miles Mercerby of
old, not the Judy Densch character of the Brosnan films and Raymond
Benson books.) Yes, this Bond still likes the same Sea Island shirts
and fine dining, not to mention guns, cars, and gadgets in a world
where gadgets are everyone’s playthings. In
fact, the head of Q branch is no longer Major Boothroyd but a new
engineer named Sanu Hirani. Bond is not working for MI-6, but rather
a disguised offshoot code-named the Overseas Development
Group.

What else has changed? Carte Blanche refers
to what Bond can and cannot do as political realities now limit his
license to kill. In England, he has no power of autonomy at all as
that’s the purview of MI-5, and 007 has to work with a disagreeable
liaison from that organization to work inside the U.K. He feels a
sense of freedom when he leaves the country for missions in Serbia,
Dubai, and South Africa, but finds his hands tied by law enforcement
chiefs who won’t move without warrants and stick to the rule of
law.

What’s missing from the mix? Nothing, except the
fantasy elements that came to characterize the films. The sex is
limited as well, at least by some standards. But the central villain
is as dangerous as any Goldfinger or Blofeld with as twisted a motive
as any Bond baddie should have. This 007 is
conspicuous for his intelligence, analytical skills, and depth of
human understanding. The locations are more than set-pieces for
action sequences—each are integral to the storyline from the slums
in Africa to the Whitehall offices in London. On top of all this,
James Bond finds a personal mystery of his own to solve regarding his
very origins.

Without question, Carte Blanche is the
finest James Bond novel published since the death of Ian Fleming. The
question now is: will Ian Fleming Publications give Jeffrey Deaver a
license to continue or will another writer pick up the mantle for
this new, improved James Bond?